Vera. An Intimate Sketch

Vera. An Intimate Sketch is a profile of Vera Pavlova, a Russian poet who makes her home both in Moscow and New York.

Presented and created in a style of a poem, this documentary reveals Vera’s thoughts on love, life and poetry. The film is her monologue, tightly intertwined with readings of her poems that, as per Vera, explores connections between the body and soul, but make many critics call her an “erotic poet.” However, this is a “mark” that Vera refuses to accept.

"Red is the color of passion, a color of love. It can represent fire and warning. It's the color of my childhood, a symbol of the tormented country where I was born."
— Yelena Demikovsky

Trailer "Vera. An Intimate Sketch"

*
I have brushed my teeth.
This day and I are even.

*
Should not regard, but I do:
a beggar rummaging in the dump,
two gays smooching on the bench,
a wino with blood on his shirt,
a drooping penis of an old man waiting for a trickle...
Should not regard. But I do.

*
He gave me life as a gift.
What can I give in return?
My poems.
I have nothing else.
But then, are they mine?
This is the way, as a child,
I would give birthday cards
to my mother: I chose them,
and paid with my father’s money.

*
Old age will come, will arrange books
in alphabetical order, will sort out photos and negatives.
With a head shake: “How meager the heritage of the most gifted”
With a shrug: “Still, they must have done their best.”
Wrapping a shawl tighter: “Incredible: any man that comes along
can deserve the title ‘darling’!”
With a toothless grin: “How lovely they look now,
the rejected photos we never put into albums!”

*
A torture: writing a rough draft
of what came as a fair copy.
The milky wholeness is gone.
The waxy ripeness is here.
I take the accursed apple,
the one that deprives us of peace,
nibble on it, do not swallow,
keep the bite behind my cheek.

*
Wrinkles around the mouth
put it in parenthesis.
Wrinkles in the corners of the eyes
put them in quotation marks.
Wrinkles across the forehead
crossed out the writing on it.
Wrinkles across the neck...
and the bridal veil of gray hair.

*
Eternalize me just a bit:
take some snow and sculpt me in it,
with your warm and bare palm
polish me until I shine…